NewArchive / 20 - The layers of Latin borrowings in English

20 - The layers of Latin borrowings in English. Their influence on the system of English word-building

Primarily there were continental Latin borrowings, that the tribes of Jutes, Angles and Saxons acquired from the contacts with a higher civilization when they still lived on the continent (cup, cheese, butter, mill, line, ounce, pipe, pound, wine).

In the early period of Old English there were the other group of borrowings from Latin. Though the barbaric invaders – tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes – tried to annihilate (избавляться, истреблять, уничтожать) all the remnants of Roman culture, they borrowed into their language via Celtic about 450 Latin words that were already in wide use in England (port, street, mile, mountain, the element chester or caster, retained in many names of towns).

Insular borrowings from Celtic and Latin made up only about 3% of the vocabulary of Engelisck, or Old English.

So, the 7^th century AD Old English consisted of words of common Indo-European and Germanic roots, as well as borrowings from Celtic, continental and early insular borrowings from Latin. All these words may be regarded as native in contrast to later borrowings that came into the language along with great changes in the life of England's people, and first of all, the conversion of Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. This caused the first really extensive wave of borrowings from Latin into English.

The conversion of the English to Christianity began in about the year 600 and was completed in the 7^lh century. As a result Latin and Greek words appeared such as altar, bishop, creed, devil, school, church, priest, disciple, psalm, temple, nun, etc.). It is interesting to note that native, pagan, Anglo-Saxon words like God, godspell, hlaford, and synn showed a strong resistance to loan words, though they were not related to Christianity.

The Renaissance period (1500-1650) was marked by significant developments in science, art and culture, especially a revival of interest in ancient civilization. Many texts were translated into English from Latin, Greek, Italian and lots of words from these languages were introduced to English (allegro, anachronism, capacity, catastrophe, celebrate, chronology, confidence, contract, criterion, dogma, epic, expend, fertile, granite, laconic, museum, native, opera, piano, portico, soprano, sarcasm, and system).

Words coined from Greek or Latin roots — the longest and usually most difficult words in the English vocabulary where alongside with well familiar photograph, telephone there are many special terms like otorhinolaryngology or sphygmomanometer. The longest word registered in English texts so far is nocalcalinocetaceoaluminosocupreovitriolic.

Native elements and borrowings in English can be summed up in the following table:

Native Lexical Units	Borrowed Lexical Units
I. 1.Anglo-Saxon words: a) Indo-European element b) Common-Germanic clement c) continental borrowings	1. from Latin and Greek a) 7'h c. A.D, due to Christianity; b) during Renaissance (15-17"1 c.)
2. Celtic borrowings (5-6lh c. A.D.)	2. from Old Norse due to the Danish Invasion (8-ll'hc.)
3. 3.Latin borrowings via Celtic (due to the Roman Invasion 55-56 B.C. - the 5lh century)	3. from French a) due to (he Norman conquest (I I-13"1 c) b) during Renaissance (15-I7"1 c.)
4. 4.English proper element not traced to any other language (not earlier than 5lh c. A.D)	4. from other modern languages due to cultural and economic contacts
5. 5.Words later created in English on the basis of native elements	5. Words later created in English on the basis of borrowed elements